TIDES. — TAMARISK. 287 



twelve or thirteen degrees even in January. In shallow 

 phices, when the sea is calm and the sun lias been shining 

 on it for some time, it is often appreciably warmer than this. 

 We have no need to consider the tides in the Medi- 

 terranean, for the difference in level between high and 

 !o^^■ tide amounts only to thirty" or forty centimetres. 

 This is the same in the I5altic; but, on the other hand. 

 the saltncss of the ^Mediterranean is almost double that 

 of tlie Baltic, the one containing, on an a\'erage, four 

 per cent of salt, the other only 2 • 2 per cent. The 

 Mediterranean is • 5 per cent Salter than the North Sea. 



CHAPTER VI. 



I can remember the time \\'hen numerous Tamarisks 

 (Tainarix i^-allica) adorned the shores of Mentone. It 

 \\'as a lovely sight in the spring, when their slender 

 branches, tliickly covered with pink no^\•ers, drooped 

 over the sea. This Mediterranean plant is gradualh- be- 

 coming rarer on the Ri\'iera, and it ma^' be looked for 

 in \'ain at Mentone. Where it once grew plentifulh the 

 broad Promenade now stretches between Mentone and 

 Cap Martin. But from time immemorial the Tamarisk 

 has been characteristic of the Mediterranean llora, and 

 according to Flomer, Odysseus hung the armour of Dolon 

 upon one of tliese trees. 



On the other hand the African I?ic/////s lias succeeded 

 in naturalising itself on the sea shore at fjaravan, where 

 it grows almost to the height of a tree. These Ricinus 

 shrubs are common on the Riviera cli Poncnte where 

 the climate seems to suit them. Hicintis coiiiDiiiuis, the 



12* 



